Walleye spawn and new rocks

If you have not been over to Sherman lately they added tons of rocks to various points around the lake. What do you think these new rock piles will do to the annual spawn.
I know a lot of guys who key on the dam before and durring the spawn.
I hope they do spread out, most of the rock piles are tough to get to from the bank. Maybe they will get less pressure from now on.

We will see next year when the new rocks are actually under some water and we are not under these low pool conditions.

The new structure will be great for the lake and should mix the travels of the fish up a little bit offering new opportunities and techniques in some non-traditional locations. I am really excited!!

We were by there the other day and it also looks like they have dumped rocks on the dam along the poured concrete line north of the overflow. There is also an addition of buried tires and gravel on the sw end of the dam on the flats there.

Looks good doesn’t it

I emailed Daryl Bauer about thoses tires that are buried on the southwest side of the dam and here is his explanation of that situation along with the change in the rock on the face of the dam:

“Yes, that is exactly what those tires covered with gravel are for–spawning beds for walleyes and perhaps other species. We will be evaluating that habitat in the coming years to see how well that worked and how much the fish are using them. We have placed some similar beds of rock and gravel on Minatare; we know the walleyes use them, whether they increase walleye reproduction and recruitment is another question but at least the fish used those beds.

I am not sure who might have been pulling the rock up closer to the poured cement; maybe that was the irrigation district doing that. Rock rip rap is better spawning habitat for walleyes than poured concrete, so if they are pulling some rock up onto that concrete I would consider that a good thing too!

Your description of Sherman as “ole girl” is right on the money. New reservoirs are very productive and provide excellent fishing for a period of years, but as they age water quality and habitat conditions change. One of our primary goals with the Aquatic Habitat Program is to keep those aging reservoirs productive, to improve water quality and habitat conditions. That is more of a challenge on a large irrigation reservoir like Sherman, but we probably are not going to see many reservoirs constructed in the future and almost certainly no new large reservoirs constructed in the future, so we need to do everything we can to keep these “ole gals” producing quality fishing opportunities! They are all we got!”

Thanks to Daryl for the explanations and taking time to communicate with us cabin owners.

Good fishin’ this year guys
jorg

Thanks Flat

I can’t wait to get up there to check out all the changes.

I am hoping to get the boat on Sherman in a couple weeks to drown some creek chubs. I may stop by over the weekend to see if they are filling it yet.